Stereotyping

1. Stereotyping

2. What Are Stereotypes? • “There is neither time nor opportunity for intimate acquaintances. Instead we notice a trait which marks a well known type and fill in the rest of the picture by means of the stereotypes we carry about in our heads.” • “Our stereotyped world is not necessarily the world we should like it to be. It is simply the kind of world we expect it to be.” Walter Lippmann (1922)

3. Stereotype Components • Culturally shared beliefs cognitive component (beliefs) affective component (feelings) behavioural component (actions) • Categorical associations men are …? accountants are…? Italians are…?

4. How De We Learn Stereotypes?

5. A Chilling Example! Children (24-28 months) touch more own sex gender-typed toys (Levy,1999).

6. Who Should Repair the Car? • Levy, Sadovsky, & Troseth (2000) preschoolers (3-4 years) viewed men as more competent than women in male sex-typed jobs and women as more competent than men in feminine jobs.

7. Habits of Thought • What happens if childhood socialization repeatedly furnishes one with stereotype-related beliefs? • Do stereotypes become habits of mind?

8. Is Stereotype Activation Inevitable? “every event has certain marks that serve as a cue to bring the category of prejudgment into action…A person with dark brown skin will activate whatever concept of African American is dominant in our mind.” Allport (1954, p. 21) “the mere presentation of a stimulus person activates certain classification processes that occur automatically and without conscious intent.” Brewer (1988, p. 5)

9. “…because the stereotype has been frequently activated in the past, it is a well-learned set of associations that is automatically activated in the presence of a member (or symbolic equivalent) of the target group.” Devine (1989, p. 6)

10. The Basic Problem! • On exposure to a target, what gets activated in mind?

11. Measuring Stereotype Activation:Semantic Priming Tasks

12. Measuring Stereotype Activation:Semantic Priming Tasks Forgetful skillful

13. Automatic Activation:Some Early Evidence • Dovidio et al. (1986) stereotypes are knowledge structures associative networks semantic priming to access associative knowledge • letter string task doctor/nurse doctor/butter

14. Dovidio et al’s (1986) Paradigm:Could X ever be true of Y? Task (verification task) participants presented with a priming label (i.e., black or white) followed shortly afterwards by a personality trait (e.g., musical) or non-person descriptor (e.g., metallic) Traits White Black ambitiousmusical practicalsensitive conventionallazy stubbornimitative

15. Results participants responded more quickly when stereotypic than non-stereotypic items were presented Problems? task demands (triggering category activation) labels (or words and images functionally equivalent?)

16. The Invisible Prime:Purdue & Gurtman (1990) ‘kind’ is the word favorable or unfavorable? • traits preceded by subliminal labels (old or young) • Results - facilitatory priming observed • Problems - words, evaluative (rather than semantic) priming

17. Devine’s (1989) Two-Process Model • power of childhood socialization acquiring cultural beliefs societal knowledge vs. personal beliefs • individual differences in prejudice high vs. low prejudice • components of stereotyping automatic activation controlled inhibition replacing stereotypes with personal beliefs

18. Knowledge of Cultural Stereotypes • Stereotype Contents bagpipes booze stingy • bigots = humanitarians (Devine, 1989)

19. Evaluate Donald Paradigm (Devine, 1989) Tasks Phase 1: parafoveal vigilance task (Negroes, lazy, blues, Blacks, Africa, basketball) Phase 2: person evaluation (Donald - Srull & Wyer, 1979) - ambiguously hostile behaviours Results: high-P participants rated Donald to be more hostile than did low-P participants

20. Automatic Stereotyping:A Slight Modification • Lepore & Brown (1997) categories vs. traits (Blacks vs. lazy) - what activates the stereotype? • category primes: only high-P participants activate the stereotype • trait primes: both high-P and low-P participants activate the stereotype • individual differences in stereotype activation (Locke et al., 1994; Wittenbrink et al., 1997)

21. Challenging Orthodoxy:Is Stereotype Activation Really Inevitable? • triggering stereotype activation (are images and words equivalent?) Belly Dancer

22. Determinants of Stereotype Activation: Target Salience • frequency of occurrence are you unusual? • immediate context are you contextually distinctive? • processing goals are you relevant to my current processing concerns?

23. Statistical Frequency:Langer et al. (1976)

24. Solo or Token Status:Taylor & Fiske (1978)

25. Processing Goals • chronic states of the person (Moskowitz et al. 2004) traits, motives, goals • transitory factors (Macrae et al., 1997) temporary goals

26. Stereotype Activation:Always or Sometimes?

27. Stereotypes as Mental Tools:Gilbert & Hixon (1991) “anyone who has ever lent a socket wrench to a forgetful neighbor knows that a tool is useful only if one can find it. Stereotypes are forms of information and, as such, are thought to be stored in memory in a dormant state until they are activated for use.” Gilbert & Hixon (1991, p. 510) • attention and stereotyping

28. Gilbert & Hixon (1991):Busyness and Stereotyping Task participants observe a woman (Caucasian or Asian) turning over cards with a single word fragment written on each card. POLI_E complete the fragment with the first word that comes to mind (SHY, SHORT, RICE) - participants busy (digit rehearsal) or non-busy (control) Results: only non-busy participants activate the stereotype (i.e., conditional automaticity)

29. Processing Goals:The Inattentive Shopper (Macrae et al. 1997)

30. Processing Goals ambitious (emotional) (flubitorso) 3 Tasks: animacy (conceptual) dot (perceptual) detection

31. Category Accessibility Macrae et al. (1997)

32. Accessing Stereotypical Knowledge • Macrae et al. (1997) in ‘spot’ of bother “beyond the hopeful implication that dermatologists are unlikely to stereotype their patients, what is the real-world relevance of studies involving such pre-semantic processing goals?” Bargh (1999)

33. Context and Stereotype Activation:Wittenbrink et al. (2001) In an evaluative priming task, activation of African-American stereotype was moderated by the context in which targets were located.

34. Lecture 4:Stereotype Application

35. Why Do People Apply Stereotypes? • ‘personality’ approaches • ‘socio-cultural’ accounts • ‘cognitive’ perspective

36. Applying Stereotypes:Possessing a ‘Dodgy’ Personality • authoritarian personality (Adorno et al., 1950) intra-psychic conflict from childhood (internalized values of the father) is projected to other people (members of minority groups – ethnic, relgious, political) - societal scapegoating.

37. Applying Stereotypes:Learning to Discriminate • socio-cultural approaches (e.g., realistic conflict theory, Sherif & Sherif, 1953) stereotypes are conceptualized as negative beliefs about a group that serve to legitimize the existing social structure (i.e., system justification)

38. Applying Stereotypes:Cognitive Efficiency • cognitive perspective (Hamilton, 1981) stereotyping is a product of category activation and basic cognitive limitations.

39. Applying Stereotypes:Basic Paradox • perils of stereotypical thinking discrimination prejudice legal sanctions • benefits of stereotypical thinking cognitive efficiency

40. What Can Stereotyping Do For You? • content-related effects • structural effects (processing consequences) perception memory attention

41. Accessing Stereotype Contents:Target Enrichment • semantic knowledge (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990) traits behaviours opinions lifestyle • ‘indirect’ person knowledge

42. Stereotypes and Information Processing:Perceptual Effects • does stereotype application moderate the ease with which people can detect information in the world? • if so, which type of information is most facilitated?

43. Activating Social Stereotypes:A Functional Analysis • stereotypical thinking is functional (Allport, 1954) • reducing the information-processing burden ease of detection perceptual identification • measurement issues - climbing inside the head

44. The Need For Speed:Categorical Person Perception is Efficient • perils of a cluttered mind enter the cognitive miser target simplification/elaboration • some cognitive benefits stimulus location stimulus identification • category priming

45. Find the Word (Stereotype Priming):Congruent vs. Irrelevant Q H A P PY T V D P V M N I O B A E L Q B Y V T R N M K V R E A I P M I V W M L N C C N Y T A L G M L D Y T V R G S H N L R I O

46. Find the Words Number of Words Macrae et al. (1994).

47. Stimulus Identification • repeated presentation of degraded words dot density mask • what’s the word? number of trials taken

48. v

50. Identify the Word Number of Presentations Macrae et al. (1994)